So I found this AU in a notebook that I picked up looking for something else I'd written and hot damn, I dunno why I haven't typed this up before.
Oh yeah, I forgot about it.
It only went up to the beginning of third year, so anything past that I'm just throwing out there. Just to let you know.
Partially inspired by 'and the fates sing (hold on, son)' by Bambieyes1234, mostly in terms of writing style. I would absolutely check that story out if you like this.
Extreme AU for the Accidental Vessel, I guess? Enjoy!
Harry Potter is born on a night that no one wants to him to be born on.
Albus Dumbledore is in the lobby of the Muggle hospital Lily had insisted on giving birth in. His eyes are on the clock. It has been several hours. He is hoping for just one hour more.
He is not a cruel man.
One hour more, and they will be half an hour into August. The seventh month is dying, and two babies are being born.
If Albus Dumbledore could be in two places at once, he would also be at St. Mungo's with the Longbottoms. James Potter had asked him to be here, and so here he came.
In the delivery room, Lily wails and pushes when they tell her to.
She knows what she is bringing this baby into, and she knows that she is powerless to stop it.
The nurses think the tears are from the pain.
Harry Potter is born a second before the stroke of midnight on the dying day of the seventh month.
Anyone who knows that there is anything unusual about him thinks of the prophecy.
Gabriel corners Coyote in a bar in Wyoming and tells him, I'm going to die.
Coyote laughs and buys another round of drinks.
Gabriel is gone before they get to the table.
The Morrígan does not trust him, and he doesn't really trust any of them not to mess with him. Wisakedjak is too irresponsible for Gabriel to think he'd even try to do it right. Raven will be sabotaged by Coyote no matter what. Anansi will refuse. Hermes...
No. Gabriel won't burden him with this.
He cannot trust anyone in Asgard - has not for a long time - and it's only in a state of panic that the idea even crosses his mind.
Kali, when he comes, listens and asks, When?
He had not meant to see it.
Gabriel constantly popped through time. For laughs, to do things he couldn't have done otherwise, just because he could. He had not meant to end up in the dingy motel, his own vessel rotting on the floor and spread wings burned into the floor.
Gabriel stumbled. Threw himself back into time. Went to Coyote in a panic.
Kali surprises him when she kisses him, roughly, and whispers I've kept your secrets before, Gabriel.
Gabriel clutches at her, because she is the closest thing he has to hold on to, and cannot muster his voice to ask how she knows.
Kali does not trust him, but she might just love him still. Gabriel does not know if he loves her. Once - long ago - he'd been sure that he had.
Luckily, Kali is not asking for his love.
He is grateful.
Here is someone who knows him.
Here is someone who can help.
He tells Kali what she needs, and they tell each other what to do. She is not doing this out of kindness. At the moment, Gabriel does not care how many times over he will owe her for this favor.
In1981, gods stop hearing from Loki.
In 1981, younger Tricksters are aware of a subtle power shift.
In 1981, no angel noticed when Gabriel vanished.
Lily sobs, when she hears the shouted curse from downstairs, the thud of something as heavy as a person hitting the floor. She does not try to fool herself and pretend that it is who she hopes it is, and not who she has always feared it will be.
She is living in a war zone. She knows the risks. That does not mean she will accept them quietly.
Her barricade of boxes in front of the door will not last long. The boxes they'd never got around to moving, when they'd unpacked all the supplies for Harry's nursery, laughing and playing and allowing themselves to forget the dangers.
Harry, in his crib, is not crying. He doesn't understand. Lily moves to the crib desperately, bending over the bars to hug him.
"I love you," she whispers, tears staining the blue onesie James had bought for him, and hopes Harry will remember these words, the warmth of her arms around him.
She will not flee.
Bravery is never any less for the tears of the brave one.
"Stand aside-"
"Not Harry, please-"
"You foolish girl, stand aside-"
"Please, not him-"
Lily Evans falls.
Spare her, pleaded Severus Snape, and Voldemort agreed not to harm the Muggle girl.
She was not worth killing, anyway.
A magical contract, once broken, has devastating consequences.
Voldemort falls.
Harry lives.
The magical world calls it a miracle and celebrates.
No one stops to think what happens to Harry afterwards.
There are strange people in Harry's life.
The Dursleys are normal, too normal, stiflingly normal. Harry takes every bit of strangeness he can find.
There is a surprising amount of it.
A substitute teacher, who trades history lessons for mythology and stories of a cunning trickster god, and whose eyes linger on Harry a little longer than on everyone else. A stranger, darker man who approaches him later and seems taken aback by his existence, and vaguely guilty about something Harry doesn't understand. A woman in a bright, emerald green cloak who enthusiastically shakes his hand, and the man in the purple top hat.
He's usually shut away in his cupboard after these incidents, if the Dursleys find out about it or witness it. Harry doesn't mind it as much, because at least for a little his life was more interesting than usual.
He turns eleven, and gets the best birthday present ever.
He meets Ron on the train and instantly likes this boy, once of the first truly friendly people he's ever met.
Ron mentions Slytherin in passing, mentions evil wizards and black magic.
Harry goes under the Hat, and when he's told Slytherin, he thinks, no. I don't want that reputation. I want people to like me.
Very well, says the Hat, better be Gryffindor...
Gryffindor is reds and golds and loud, friendly faces, and his things are already at the end of one of the beds.
Harry dislikes Snape. He is cruel without reason, picking on anyone who isn't a Slytherin and especially the Gryffindors.
Something inside him says bully, and Harry aches for Snape to be taken to task for his behavior.
When Harry's first flying lesson comes around and he shoots into the air after Malfoy, something inside him shouts Yes!
He absolutely belongs up here, feet not touching the ground, taking prats down a peg or two-
Harry doesn't realize how strange it was, that it felt so right to one-up Malfoy, but even Hermione reminding him of the broken rules can't put a dent in the euphoria of winning.
He's appointed to the Quidditch team, and Harry is full of a high-strung nervous excitement at the knowledge that he will be able to to something that involves flying the whole time.
Some things cannot be erased.
Some things run in blood, to the very core of someone's self, and stay there no matter what happens to them.
Harry knows none of this, of course.
That is the whole point.
Harry hears about the Philosopher's Stone, of the idea of it falling into Voldemort's hands, and thinks, that can't happen.
He tells Ron and Hermione. They insist on coming with him.
He doesn't tell them about the second thought, which was, It would probably be better with me.
He takes them with him.
Harry is eleven, and doesn't know any better than to think beyond what is obviously wrong.
He sees how Quirrel burns under his touch, in the deepest part of the hidden chamber, and goes straight for the face.
Dumbledore does not mention this when he talks to Harry in the Hospital Wing.
He talks about love and sacrifice, and tells Harry nothing at all.
Harry is ignored all summer, and if Dobby hadn't admitted to blocking his letters there might have been a part of Harry that was tempted not to return. It would have served them right, if they had ignored him, if he simply didn't come back. If the wizarding world lost their savior.
But staying means the Dursleys, year-round. Harry refuses. Dobby drops a cake on the guest's head. Harry is locked behind bars.
Ron comes to get him.
Harry is fiercely grateful. Being behind literal bars with no way out had burned at him in a way that felt deeply personal. Escaping with the Weasleys turns gratefulness into an odd kind of happiness that is not just because he's back in the sky.
Mrs. Weasley yells at Ron and the twins, and reassures Harry every other sentence. Having such a caring figure abruptly enter his life is a change. Harry thinks it's a good one.
This is what a family is like. The Weasleys unconditionally fold Harry into their little group, like he's been with them all their life. For a second, Harry is jealous of Ron and how normal this is for his friend.
Ron grins at him across the table. Harry grins back.
There is blood painted on the walls, people still and frozen without any hint of ice. People whisper in the hallways and call Harry Slytherin's Heir.
They find the diary.
It screams wrongness at Harry, so much so that he refuses to touch it. Ron gingerly picks it up.
Ron talks to Tom Riddle. Ron gets scared. Ron's things get ransacked and the diary stolen before they can bring it to any of the teachers.
They know another Gryffindor has the diary. They don't know who.
People keep getting petrified. Dumbledore is removed from the school. Hagrid is arrested for something he didn't. Ron and Harry enter the forest on a vague hint in search of answers while Hermione lies in the Hospital wing.
Harry nearly wanders away from the spiders they're following more than once. Ron keeps a tight grip on his hand.
Harry cannot explain the pull he feels, to be somewhere much deeper elsewhere in the Forest.
Ginny Weasley is pale and cold at one end of the chamber. Tom Riddle manifests himself. Harry lets the spirit monologue while he tries to think of a plan.
A lot of the time, Harry forgets that he is just as young and vulnerable as the people he is trying to protect.
He kills the Basilisk and nearly kills himself doing so. Ginny wakes up to the sight of far, far too much blood and a phoenix crying healing tears over Harry where he's sprawled on the floor.
They hold each other up, with Fawkes's help, on the way out.
Harry does his best not to wince when Mrs. Weasley tearfully hugs him.
Exams are cancelled. People are de-petrified. Hermione is thrilled but (to Harry's relief) does not try to hug him.
They exchange letters all summer. This time, no one steals them before they arrive.
(Harry had enough in him for one more trick, and besides, Dobby did technically try to help him).
Sirius Black escapes.
Harry does not understand the significance of this until he finds himself on the Knight Bus with an overly talkative conductor.
The Minister finds him at the Leaky Cauldron and forgives the magical incident at the Dursley's without a fuss. Harry finds someone who will perform color-change charms on him so it's harder to recognize him as Harry Potter, and gets the full story about Black from a man at the ice-cream parlor.
Betrayal.
Harry is viciously angry that night, and then more coldly contemplative the next.
No one expects him to know this.
Sirius Black will be expecting a naïve thirteen-year-old.
Harry will be neither unprepared nor ignorant when Black gets to him.
The Hogwarts Express stops early. The windows frost over.
The Dementors come.
Harry is struck unconscious, the echo of a scream in his ears.
When he wakes, his friends are staring at him, pale-faced. He doesn't understand any more than they do.
Quidditch is still fun, thrilling in the chase the Seeker takes part in, but less so when the Dementors make him faint while he's five hundred feet off the ground. Even less so when he wakes up in the Hospital wing to find his broom smashed to bits.
Harry feels oddly grounded - in both senses of the word. He can't fly without his Nimbus, one of the first gifts he'd ever been given.
It feels partly like spite that motivates him to go to Lupin. Lupin knows the charm to repel Dementors, and Harry's going to learn it or, well, not die trying, but do something similarly dramatic.
Lupin agrees. It doesn't go well, even if Lupin does his best to encourage Harry. He can't get a hand of this simple spell.
It's not an easy thing to master, Lupin says, and Harry thinks, I can do things no one else could dream of.
He doesn't know where the thought comes from.
But he did survive a killing curse. A Patronus shouldn't be beyond his abilities.
Harry receives a Firebolt.
The thought of being in the air again practically makes him float - and then McGonagall confiscates it and he thuds right back down to the ground. When he finds it's Hermione who told McGonagall that stings, personal, like she's taken something irreplaceable from him.
Even the impending threat of Buckbeak's execution isn't quite enough to pull the three of them back together. It feels like a long while before they all end up in Hagrid's hut to console him, and Hermione discovers Scabbers with a shriek.
They have to run to get out before the Ministry officials arrive. From there Harry feels like he's falling from one event into the next, barely any time to actually register what's happening, until they're in the Shrieking Shack and Sirius Black is at the point of his wand.
And he hesitates.
He can't do it, and he feels irrationally angry with himself for that.
(Of course, after everything's explained properly, he's just relieved).
Lupin is fired, unfairly, and Harry thinks that it shouldn't matter that he's a werewolf.
What people are doesn't matter, but what kind of person (or being) they are does.
Ron invites him to the Quidditch World Cup.
It's fantastic, only tempered by the fact that Harry wishes he could be in the air himself, because there's so much space that isn't just the area above the field (brooms, even a Firebolt, could only go so high before it got dangerous).
The afterparty, of sorts, is not nearly so fun.
Harry looses his wand and a part of him flat-out blanks in panic, because it's his wand. How is he supposed to do magic without it?
It is retrieved from the house elf, who is sacked before their eyes. Crouch seems too nervous, but Harry notices it only peripherally. He is not sure what to think of the green mark hovering in the sky over their heads.
Harry is entered into the Tournament. Ron, one of the only two people he could turn to, refuses to speak to him.
Harry is left to his own-overly quiet mind to panic about the first task, and seethe over the betrayal.
Loyalty is not to be treated so lightly.
He thinks, once, I wonder if whoever makes these tasks up is trying to kill us.
It's not as funny when he says it out loud to Hermione.
It's only the fact that something has felt off enough to make Harry feel ill that lets him realize what's going to happen before it does.
He tackles Cedric to the ground, the green curse rocketing over their heads. The next three miss as well, the two of them scrambling in a zigzag and ducking for cover behind tombstones.
Cedric gets knocked out. Harry lunges for him and is intercepted halfway there.
Voldemort rises.
Cedric is killed.
Harry flees.
That summer blurs together in a haze of fury and nightmares. Harry has been cut off from everyone, and it doesn't help when they come to get him only after he's nearly killed and expelled.
Hermione and Ron were with the Order the whole time.
They could have told him something.
Harry very nearly shouts his way through the trial in an attempt to actually be heard, until Dumbledore shows up (managing to not look at him a single time).
Harry sulks his way through most of the year. All of Hogwarts - all of the wizarding world, it seems like - has turned against him.
At least he's got Hermione and Ron.
Hermione and Ron, while they're at school, can't do much about the fact that Umbridge is a controlling, horrible woman.
Harry can't, either, and he hates it.
The year is miserable, and Harry speaks out in Umbridge's classes because that's all he can do, and he's pretty sure her detentions cross some sort of legal line but who can he go to, who can he trust will actually help?
After that summer, is it really surprising that the answer is no one?
Umbridge's control over the school expands so slowly that it seems like no time at all before she's everywhere, Education Decrees displayed on the wall and Malfoy utterly unbearable with the silver I pinned to his robes.
Hermione and Ron are the ones who come up with the idea - Ron stubbornly insists that it was just Hermione's idea. A defense club, meeting in secret, to learn all the things Umbridge won't teach them.
Harry doesn't think he's a teacher, but he falls surprisingly easily into the role, telling people what they're doing wrong and how to do it right, controlling the multitude of students and strolling around to make sure everything's going smoothly.
It does, until it doesn't, but that happens later.
More specifically, after Harry dreams about attacking Mr. Weasley and wakes up to find that it had actually happened.
The Weasleys, white-faced and full of worry, hurry him back to Grimmauld Place with them. Harry doesn't tell anyone what's going on in his head, the way the dream set him off kilter and the way he was so, so certain that he'd done it.
Hermione tells him he couldn't possibly have gotten out of the school and back so fast. Harry thinks she'd have debunked the snake part, too, if she knew about it.
He doesn't tell her about the snake, or the way it feels (chillingly) quite easily within the realms of possibility.
They visit Mr. Weasley at the hospital. He seems to be recovering admirably fast.
The conversation they overhear, thanks to Fred and George, makes Harry isolate himself until Ginny comes along to knock some sense into him, I've been possessed too you know, you could have thought to ask me.
Harry isn't possessed.
It's more reassuring than he'd thought it would be.
The DA goes well, unnoticed until it isn't anymore.
Harry doesn't know whether to be impressed or a little scared by the enchantment Hermione had put on the sign-up sheet.
He goes for both.
Umbridge being appointed Headmistress is a definite downside to the situation.
So is the club being disbanded, and Dumbledore leaving the school completely.
Luckily, Fred and George have a solution.
The fireworks are really just the thing that everyone wanted.
Everyone except Umbridge, that is (and maybe Filch), though she certainly deserved it.
Harry is launched into a panic by the mere thought that Sirius might die.
He doesn't understand why Hermione hesitates, why she and Ron are so nervous, he saw it, and it launches them into one thing after another until he and Hermione are in the Forbidden Forest and they've just seen Umbridge get carried off by centaurs and Harry, for some unfathomable reason even he can't trace, starts running.
He doesn't know why he needs desperately to be somewhere, but he does, and something in him knows where that place is even if he's still at sea in all of this.
But Sirius-
Whatever is pulling him deeper into the forest flares impatiently, in the back of his mind. Harry keeps running.
He can hear Hermione crashing through the underbrush behind him. She's shouting something, but Harry doesn't even hear it, the tug towards something he doesn't understand blurring his other senses.
The Forest gets more claustrophobically choked with thorny vines and inconveniently jutting undergrowth around him. Harry barely notices. Hermione's shouts get fainter, but never so far away that they vanish completely.
There's a tree, looming over him, the canopy arching above anything and everything else in the Forest. There's a cacophony of bright green and a riot of colorful flowers around it, and Harry stumbles over a tree root and puts his hand on the tree to steady himself.
When Gabriel made himself Fall, Kali hid what remained of the angel where he was sure to find it. When he was ready - when he could be sure that he'd changed whatever led to his death - she'd help him find it again.
No plan is perfect.
Gabriel has always been curious.
Gabriel gasps in a breath, distantly aware that he should, and Hermione is next to him, shouting in increasingly worried tones and he stumbles back, information still settling into place in his head and Grace fluctuating and throwing up a wind around them. There's so much noise in his head, the background chatter of siblings he'd long ago left abandoned, and he cuts himself away from that connection shakily.
Harry, what-
We have to go!
Hermione shouts at him to explain, but Sirius might be dying.
Gabriel does several impossible things he knows he'll have to explain later, but fuck it, of course he was going to tell them anyway.
They're his friends.
Not him, Gabriel pleads, when he manages to suspend time and make enough ruckus that Death himself shows up. You can take any one of the tainted ones, but don't touch him.
Gabriel, Death says. My, my. This is a surprise.
He doesn't take anybody. Bellatrix Lestrage dies in Sirius's place - impossible thing #5.
He's going to have a lot of explaining to do when the battle finally ends.
I hid myself, Harry explains, later, in Dumbledore's office, surrounded by astonished friends and Order members. With a little help. I thought I could - change what I saw was going to happen.
He doesn't know if it's worked.
Nobody asks what sort of creature hides themselves has human. Maybe it doesn't cross any of their minds. Harry appreciates that.